Celebrating ‘Mythical Figures,’ the Long-Suffering Mothers of Mexico

Work in offices throughout Mexico ground to a halt Wednesday and restaurants were packed for leisurely family lunches to honor the figure most revered in this rich and ancient culture: the mother.

That Mother’s Day is celebrated here as a midweek holiday away from work illustrates the depth of respect Mexicans hold for motherhood--not to mention how much they enjoy their fiestas.

At the same time, the holiday served to remind Mexicans that, despite the festive events, Mexican mothers--many of them single heads of households--still face particularly daunting obstacles in seeking decent employment and fair treatment.

El Dia de las Madres is held each May 10, no matter the day of the week, whereas the United States and many other countries celebrate Mother’s Day on the second Sunday each May.

While not an official day off work here, many offices and factories close or operate half a day, enabling mothers to be wined and dined. Many schools put on elaborate concerts.

“It is literally a national fiesta,” said Fausto Zapata, a former governor of San Luis Potosi state. Zapata had to cancel a business lunch Wednesday in the face of a family revolt when it appeared he might not be able to attend a Mother’s Day luncheon.

“Perhaps the only similar fiesta is Dec. 12, which celebrates the mother of all Mexicans,” Zapata noted, referring to the feast day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, the nation’s ultimate matriarchal symbol.

Many families made Mother’s Day pilgrimages Wednesday to the Basilica of Guadalupe in northern Mexico City. Others hired mariachi bands to fete mothers at lunches or to play mournful ballads at mothers’ graves.

Analysts agree that underlying the warm and fuzzy emotions is a significant if belated advance in women’s place from homemaker to decision-maker in a society where an image of male machismo prevails.

Teresa Inchaustegui, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Program for Women’s Studies at the Colegio de Mexico, told the Universal newspaper: “A middle-class woman is in a much more comfortable position to do and be what she wants, although in the lower, uneducated classes male supremacy still prevails, with oppression [and] violence.”

Guillermo Samperio, a novelist, also noted Wednesday in a newspaper column: “The mothers are the house; they control the home, they have the last word. It is the mother who grants her son independence, who frees him from the umbilical cord and lets him grow.”

The mother figure has long carried importance in Mexican society. Octavio Paz, the Nobel Prize-winning poet and interpreter of his country’s soul until his death in 1998, noted in his 1950 study, “The Labyrinth of Solitude,” that every May 10 Mexicans celebrate “not a mother of flesh and blood but a mythical figure [representing] the long-suffering Mexican mother.”

Paz noted separately that “the solitary Mexican loves fiestas and public gatherings. We are a ritual people, and this characteristic enriches both our imaginations and our sensibilities, which are equally sharp and alert. The art of the fiesta has been debased almost everywhere else, but not in Mexico.”

Mother’s Day is the fourth working-day holiday in recent weeks, after Good Friday, Labor Day on May 1 and Cinco de Mayo (May 5), commemorating Mexico’s victory over French troops in 1862. Teacher’s Day, a minor holiday, is coming on Monday.

There’s no doubt that far more Mexicans observe Mother’s Day than Cinco de Mayo. Indeed, Mexico boasts what must be one of the world’s biggest statues in honor of motherhood, the huge Monument to the Mother dominating Sullivan Park in downtown Mexico City.

Candidates of every political stripe in Mexico’s presidential ballot on July 2 didn’t miss the chance to make speeches and broadcast campaign ads lauding mothers and promising better treatment for women.

But political analyst Sergio Sarmiento argued that, despite all the happy celebrations of Mother’s Day, Mexican mothers lose out in many aspects of daily life.

“What happens when a pregnant mother seeks work? Or a single, separated or divorced mother, or even simply a mother over 40?” Sarmiento wrote in Mexico City’s Reforma newspaper. “The tendency of bosses and human resources managers is to discriminate against them, to deny them work or to pay them inferior salaries.”

It remains common for Mexican companies to carry out pregnancy tests on prospective female employees and to reject those who test positive. Advertisements typically seek out “attractive younger women” for secretarial positions.

Sarmiento noted that 18% of Mexican households are headed by women, according to government statistics. Predominantly male emigration to the United States is a significant factor in leaving mothers as sole providers or heads of households.

“All these practices are simply forms of injustice that remind us, constantly, that we live in a country where we celebrate motherhood but we discriminate against the mothers,” Sarmiento said.